More Blog Candy

Just love this blog it has beautiful work that is vintage and grunge and TH inspired.

The blog candy is fab for those of you who like distressed paper and inky fingers. Just become a follower and post a link about the blog and candy and become a follower. When Anika has 50 followers she will make the draw.

Go to -   http://anikraft.blogspot.com/

B xxx

Craft Your Days Away

Hi Everyone

There is a new challenge blog starting on the 7th August called 'Craft Your Days Away', which will be a multi-crafts challenge blog. At the moment to celebrate and to spread the word they have candy to give away to three lucky people. Go take a look.

First Prize a £10.00 voucher to Crafty Emma's Store

Second Prize is some fab embellishments

Third Prize is a Kraftin Kimmie Stamp

Good luck and happy crafting.

Luv B xxxx

Toby is a winner and Farnborough Air Show

Woo hoo, Toby in a bag is a winner at Mark's Finest Papers and my prize is a stamp set, so I await to see which one it will be. Isn't it great to know that your work merits a win. Thankyou to everyone at MFP.

This week the Farnborough Air Show is on and we live right under the flight path, so it is very exciting to watch all the planes coming in and to be able to see much of the displays during the day. As a family we are very interested in watching the planes and my husband and son can name them all. Both my son and my daughter even take the week off normal work to go and work at the show for the week. Of course they get to see the planes, meet people and earn extra money, can't be bad can it?? Yesterday morning Ken and I were standing out in the garden before 9.00 am with our dressing gowns on waiting to see the Boeing Dreamliner come in. A historic moment as it's the first time it has been seen in this country, we have seen many of these 'firsts' over the years.

Here are some photos I took this afternoon whilst watching the display from the back garden. I have only named one as I would need Ken or Ben to tell me what the others are.

This is the double-decker Airbus and as you can see it came very near to the house. Those trees are at the bottom of my garden.

Just loved the cloud - so whispy, so I thought I would take a picture of it.

Hope you've had a good start to the week.

Take care. Luv B xxxx

Digi Madness

Hi Everyone, it's Sunday and time again for the weekly challenge at One Stitch At A Time. Go have a look at the digi madness examples from the design team and the images they have used. This week we are sponsored by Craftbrulee with a $10 voucher to spend in their store. Check out their gorgeous lace flowers.

On my card I have used the smiling seahorse from Lil Diva which can be found at Stitchy Bear Stamps. I wanted to make a summery beach/ocean theme card and this cute image really caught my eye.

I used promarkers to colour it in using denim blue, duck egg, soft green, pastel green and the blender which gave it a gorgeous effect and then I cut it out and edged with broken china and pine needles DIs. I then covered the image only with glossy accents.

The DPs are from the Soft Expressions set by Judy Melvin and Crafters Block. They have been distressed with TH distressing tool and edged with the above DIs then edged again with star dust stickles.

The real shells I collected the other week when I was in Swanage and the resin shell and starfish I bought in Swanage a few years ago.

I have also used some cream binding tape and notepaper and TH Alterations ticket strip both edged with vintage photo distress ink. The sentiment is from Raindrop Echo designs.

I love this photo of the shells, it looks as though there is a reflection in the water. Actually it was taken outside on my glass table. Not bad though eh?

Challenges I would like to enter -
Little paper Shop - Distressing
Pollycraft Monday - Bold and bright
Incy Wincy Designs - Distress it
Everybody Art - Holidays
Creative Card Crew - To die for
Gingersnap Creations - Markers
Stampavie - Anything goes
S2G - Make a splash
Shelly's images - Layers

Daring Cardmakers - Sea related
Mami Doodles - Anything goes
Allsorts - Summer Days
Stamp, scrap and Doodle - Animals
Bee Crafty - At the beach
Our Creative Corner - Beach layout
Oh Alice - Dancing under the sea
Anything Goes - Sparkle and shine
For fun challenges - colouring techniques
Practical Scrappers monthly - Just beachy

A Compendium of Curiosities - Bee Happy

Happy Sunday everyone and bee happy.

Before I get onto my card for today I can't wait to see all the creations Team A have made at One Stitch at a Time. The new challenge starts today has been a 'challenging' one in every sense of the word. Go take a look and see if it takes your fancy. Always up for a challenge aren't we?

For me I have been inspired by Annette to take a look at Studio L3 and the challenges which are all things Tim. This week, Linda's challenge is P.49 in the Compendium of Curiosities and Shabby Chic. Of course TH and shabby - well I couldn't resist could I - but actually although I have used the technique here, I wouldn't say my card is particularly shabby chic. But even so I am pleased with the way it came out. I also used the layout from Sketch Saturday.

This is how the technique worked for me. I used my TH bee stamp properly for the first time and had several goes at this before I was happy with it. The first one I made I used clear embossing powder over gold acrylic paint and then put copper over the top so there wasn't enough contrast. So for this one I stamped the bee using distress embossing ink on dark blue card and added clear powder. Then I painted both the gold and the copper over it in two seperate layers. This has given it a metallic look and you can see the shades of the colours where I have rubbed them off to reveal the dark blue bees. I edged around with cinnamon stickles. Next time I will try a pattern like Tim and use the black acrylic paint and a shabby colour on top.

So this is how the card looks. The backing paper is Basic Grey and I edged it with vintage photo DI and cosmic shimmer aqua twinkles (I thought the gold stickles would be too much here). I also used the TH distressing tool. The top and bottom strips are made from red paper also edged with the vintage photo and aqua twinkles, I added some ribbon and twine and sewed over these to give a different effect. The roses are made of ribbon and bought from one of my local craft shops but I also added vintage photo to age them. The sentiment is mine - just produced in Word.

Hope you like my new creation. Enjoy the rest of your day and have a good week.

Luv B xxxx

Challenges I would like to enter
Studio L3 A Compendium of Curiosities #4 - Shabby Chic
Sketch Saturday - week 111
The Shabby Tea Room - Let's make an impression
Ooh la La Creations - Summer    Bees definitely remind me of this time of year
The crazy challenge - In the air  Hope the fact that the main image is bees is enough for this challenge
Kaboodle Doodles - Summer
Your next stamp - Flowers

Art Creations and Lili of the valley

Welcome to my blog and thanks for stopping by.

As I was perusing the challenge blogs I found this background paper on Art Creations Friday and a great sketch on Lili of the Valley and decided to put the two together for my next card.

I have used a vintage picture and used PMs to colour the red top, embossing it with clear embossing powder.

I glittered a Maya frame and placed the picture behind it and used the next size up frame to mount it on. It has been covered in paper and painted with white acrylic paint, then edged with fired brick DI and star dust stickles.

The butterfly and bird are from my collection that I have downloaded and they have been covered in crackle accents.

The roses I made, the white one I used crepe paper and the red one is made from ribbon. The leaves are punched and edged with pine needles DI. I cut the ribbon frame using Spellbinders ribbon tag trio 2 and added some white seam binding and the sentiment I made using Word.

I cut the flowery background paper in three and edged each piece with star dust stickles and the spotty paper comes from Far Far Hill again a free download. This was also edged with vintage photo, fired brick and star dust stickles.

I am pleased with the shabby look and the way the picture stands up on the card. Of course there is plenty of sparkle too.

Hope you are having a good weekend, hopefully in this gorgeous sunshine, although I realise it's not across the whole country. Enjoy whatever you are doing.

Luv B xoxox

Challenges I would like to enter

Art Creations Friday - background paper provided

Lili of the Valley #57 - Sketch

Stampin' B's - Dots

Flutterby Wednesday - Open with a butterfly, fairy or angel

Shabby Tea Room - Embossing
Incy Wincy - Punches
Crafty Cradmakers - Inky Fingers
Lexi's Creations - 3D

Christmas in July

Welcome everyone to a scorcher of a day. I have just sat outside to have some lunch and the sun is very intense. If I go out again I must remember to put some sun screen on.

I didn't think I would be able to think about Christmas at this time of the year but I was looking at Linda's blog - A crafting journey and was inspired to make something completely different again, but in her TH style. I loved her little hanging she posted on Monday and decided I really fancied doing some 'grunge'.

Alot of my Christmas bits and pieces are in the loft, and I think I will have to get them out, but here is what I had fun making with what I have in my supplies.

The stamps are TH Letter to Santa collection and the text is from Serendipity Stamps. I used antique linen, fired brick, peeled paint and vintage photo DIs. The tree is a die cut from Lisa Bearnson and I popped out the circles, glittered them and stuck them back in. The tree was coloured using the peeled paint and then I embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used green and red stickles for the holly and berries round Santa's hat and added the ribbons at the bottom. Thanks Linda for the inspiration.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Luv B xoxox

Challenges I would like to enter

Crafty Cardmakers - Inky Fingers

Creative Card Crew - Die-cuts

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Christmas in July

Creative Cottage - No cards allowed

Corrosive Challenge - Christmas Time

One Stop Craft - Distressing

Meljen's Designs - Circles

One powerful hour - Stamp It

Fussy and Fancy - Christmas in July

MAWTT DT card -

Good morning everyone

I am working today so this is a scheduled post, but I will be back later to check all is well.

The sketch challenge at MAWTT this week has been designed by Hazel and we were given a digi stamp and some backing papers to use by the very talented Stitchy from Stitchy Bear Stamps, who is our sponsor this week. If you haven't visited the shop yet, go along and take a peek, there is a whole range of goreous goodies you can buy. Stitchy, if you read this, the sentiment is for you. Very apt don't you think??

This is my creation using Stitchy Stamps Butterfly Love and papers from Crafty Chaos, which I thoroughly enjoyed making. (Check them all out at Stitchy Bear Stamps - link above).  I mounted the three matting pieces on yellow paper, distressed them using faded jeans DI and edged them with the star dust stickles. The gorgeous image was coloured using promarkers (see list of colours below) and I have covered the wings with frosted lace stickles. Around the outside edge I used the faded jeans again and waterfall stickles - you know how I love to glitter things up. The green patterened backing paper was distressed and then edged with the waterfall stickles. The flower was made using prima petal layers and I have added my usual butterfly covered in glossy accents. Some little yellow flowers with a pin and beads tied with a ribbon have balanced out the design.

Promarkers
dress - tulip yellow, yellow, canary and oatmeal
hair - cinnamon, caramel, tan and satin
skin - pastel pink, dusky pink, blush and ivory
wings - pear green, denim blue, powder blue
others - forest green, peach, azure, duck egg, burnt orange

Have a great day and I hope to see your creations on the MAWTT challenge blog.

Take care. Luv B xoxox

Challenges I would like to enter
Crafty Catz - Distressing
Prairie fairy - Anything goes
If the shoe fits - Spread your wings
One stop craft - Distressing
Bee Crafty - 3D
Pile It On - favourite things   Using glitter or Stickles to look sparkly
Sentimental Sundays - Celebrations   I envisage this card being used for anything that celebrates someone doing something different ie walk for charity, opening a new shop, etc
Magical Crafts - Flower Power
Crafty Cardmakers - Inky Fingers
Your next stamp - Flower power
I love Promarkers - Distressing
Flutterby Wednesday - Open but with a butterfly, fairy or angel on it

Altered photo frame

Hi Everyone

I thought I would show you another photo frame I have altered. This time it is more of a shabby Chic style.

It really tells it's own story, but the thing I am most pleased with is the lovely red grungepaper flower. I used the TH tattered floral die and added some glitter to the edges and love the result.

The die cut used at the top is from the Llewelyn Bowen Renaissance collection and as you can see I have also added a pin and beads and some little hearts, one with a green heart charm hanging from it.

Of course I have added a butterfly from my downloaded collection and spread glossy accents over it.

I hope your week is going well.

Take care. Luv Brenda xxxx

Challenges I would like to enter

Flutterby Wednesday - Open but with a butterfly, fairy or angel added.

ABC Challenge - You and Me   This is Ken and I on holiday in Egypt earlier in the year. Lovely memories.

Creative Cottage - No cards allowed

Creative Belli - Alter it

Creative Card Crew - Die cuts

My time to craft - Angelic - I have an angel on the die cut

Pile it on - Favourite things  -  butterflies yeh

Magical Crafts - Flower Power

The Prairie Fairy - Anything goes

If the shoe fits - Wings

Ellephantastic cards and crafts - Its up to you

OSAAT card for a new baby and new mother

Hi Everyone

Woooo how exciting my first DT card for One Stitch At A Time Challenge Blog (OSAAT). It's been amazing making new friends on the team and seeing so much inspiration gathered all in one place. If you haven't yet been to visit the OSAAT blog and take part in the challenges, have a look, I am sure you will find plenty to interest you. They are having a 30% SALE in the shop at the moment. The link is on my side bar.
The sponsor this week is Hobbyhabitat which is a great shop with brilliant prices - http://uk.ebid.net/perl/main.cgi?mo=user-store&title=hobbyhabitat&start=375
If you buy something from them please say you got the link from the OSAAT challenge site.

This lovely image is a digi stamp called 'Baby on the Moon' and is from Sew Many Cards. The challenge was to use one of Angela's images with the theme 'lace and ribbons/bows', and this is the result.

I have coloured my image using Promarkers, distressed the edges with TH Distress Ink - Vintage Photo and mounted it on a blue background which I made by painting a light blue acrylic paint onto some card, drying it off and then going over it with an Adirondack Denim dye pad. I spritzed it with water and blotted it off to give a mottled effect for the sky. I then stamped with a small star stamp from Lavina stamps using Versamark and Judi Kins sticky stuff embossing powder. I then sprinkled glitter over it to get a sparkly sky effect. The frame I made using Spellbinders dyes and covered it with glitter, edged it with Aged Mahogany and mounted the image over the top.

The pink DP is from my box of bits and edged with both Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo DI and then with Star Dust Stickles. Some music paper, also edged with Vintage Photo, has been added with some lace. I cut a scalloped tag using Ellison thick cuts and edged with Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo. The sentiment is from Melissa Frances.

I hope you like the end product, I am pleased with the overall effect and just need a new baby girl to be born so I can pass it on.

Promarkers used
cloud - powder blue, pastel blue, ice grey 2
moon - canary, tulip yellow, buttercup
baby - magenta, pink carnation, blossom and the patches are soft green
star - yellow with sakura glitter pen over it
skin - dusky pink, blush, ivory

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Luv Bxxxx


Challenges I would like to enter
Bunny Zoe Crafts - nice and girly  -  for a new baby girl
Shelly's Images - anything goes with a celebration
One Stop Craft - Distressing
Bee Crafty - 3D (My frame, sentiment is on foam pads)
Lexi's Creations - layers, 3D
Totally Papercrafts - One for the girlies
Crafty Catz - Distressing
Prairie Fairy - Anything goes
Alphabet Challenge - J is for Jewels
Stampavie and more - Sparkling
Crafts and Me - Birthdays
Cooking it up with Katie - Sparkle an altered die cut
Everybody Art - Birthday